You’re sitting in your favourite chair staring at the television with your lot coursing through your mind. Not one of the 1500 channels you flip through sooths it. You search out the recline button and press until the chair that used to calm you can recline no more. You would rather just lie down and pass out but your thoughts of imminent disaster won’t allow it. Days have rolled into months, months have disappeared into years and years have swung into decades without any relief. Your Finances are suppressing you, your marriage is oppressing you, your job is stifling you and you need a deep breath of relief but none comes. Breathing is getting more difficult to do because you know you can do something different but you just keep falling back into the same old habits you are responsible for taking your breath away in the first place. You are running out of the courage to live just one more day. Fear not! Jesus has overcome this world for you! He is for you but you must begin to focus on Him and what He can do! Let Him breathe for you as you get the courage to change your mind.

Our mind sustains change like a rock retains water. We have hard habits of saying, doing and acting in a certain way and we get stuck. We fight for what we want but what we want is not good for us! Only Jesus knows what is good for us. We continue to do what is not functional. Only Gods will is functional. There are three ways we can begin to change our mind and find courage right now that will make a difference.

1. Bend a knee
2. Search the Scriptures
3. Act on them

Bend a Knee

If you are reading this blog you are seeking Jesus and a way to improve your life skills. We cannot improve our life skills without Jesus. You are created to do good works for Him and until we admit we have been ruining our life it can never be fixed. Ruin might be a strong word but dead is an even stronger word used in Scripture. Without Jesus your life is dead therefore ruined. On your knees rather than lounging is the place to be. When we lay out dead in our distresses there are no options for us. We continue down the same path as if it is our lot in life. It is NOT! Jesus has a new way for us although bending our knees alone will not change our mindset. The change comes from the understanding of our powerlessness and the Power we call Jesus! He alone has the Power we need to sustain courage. His only requirement is we hear Him. It is difficult to hear what Jesus says sometimes because we are not focused on Him but on what is going on in our own mind. Bending a knee is a powerful statement of faith helping us focus on Jesus rather than ourselves. The power we give up on our knees opens our ears to hear Him giving us instruction to do the right thing (Hebrews 4:12). What is that right thing and how will you know it is right?

Search the Scriptures!

When you have been given instruction you begin searching the Scriptures. We will always know the right thing if it lines up with the Scriptures. We are told to test EVERY spirit. Jesus has Written Himself and who He is on every page in every Word. What is right to do is on those pages and what we need to know is on those pages. Jesus allows us to search the Scriptures to find Him and until we do our search we will not know what is right. I know there are 2000+ pages, 30,102 Scriptures and 770,430 Words in the NKJV but let me ask you, “How much time have you spent on television, Facebook, Twitter or other time wasting shenanigans?” How have they helped you efficiently solve your problems? How was your mindset when you finished? Our mindset toward life changes when we search the Scriptures rather than the internet. Searching for powerful Scriptures alone will not change our mindset but understanding the Words of Jesus are what changes our mindset. For instance, a search on our topic of time revealed Ephesians 5:15-17; Psalm 39:4-5; Psalm 90:12 read together gives us solid instruction of how we should regard what little time we have and how significant every single day is marching toward the Day of Lord. There are good software’s available to compile Scriptures on specific topics therefore we have no excuse for the lack of knowledge of our Saviour and His plan for us. Searching the Scriptures is not enough, we have to act on what we know to do!

Act on it!

There is no possibility of an improved life if we do not participate in the improvement. How often have you said your life is not going well then continued down the same path as yesterday? How frustrating is that? We see other folks living better lives while deliberately ignoring the work they’ve done. We have set our mind on our ingrained excuses rather than doing the work to fix the problems. Our mindset must change from the worldly things to the Spiritual things or we will never have the life Jesus longs to give us. Acting on the Scriptures alone will not change our mindset unless we understand what Jesus wants us to do. We need to take courage and start acting out the Words of God! Start with the simple apparent things such as not lying. We lie to ourselves when we say there is nothing we can do about our situation. There is plenty we can do even if it is just acceptance for now. We are responsible to improve our situation so let’s get going and make the changes needed. The best way to get started is to document, document, and document! Find a good notebook or even a day timer and begin each day with a simple goal. If money is your issue, buy one less coffee. If lying is your issue, tell one less lie. One less means change and before you know it your mind will be changed. Everyone knows how hard it is to do this but the rewards of being an overcomer are beyond earthly measure (Revelation 1, 2, 3). We can take action even though our mind is not ready and our mind will eventually catch up. Try it today and set your mind to doing it for at least 7 days. Don’t give up!

The day will come!

Bending a knee alone will not change our mindset. The change comes from the understanding of our powerlessness and the Power we call Jesus! Searching for powerful Scriptures alone will not change our mindset but understanding the Words of Jesus is what changes us. Acting on the Scriptures alone will not change our mindset unless we understand what Jesus wants us to do. Jesus is not going to change your mind for you but before you know it you will be in the middle of Gods goodness. It is that goodness that bring us to the courage behind change. This may be the only thing we have control over so be diligent about making it happen. The day will come when your continued courage will result in a change of mind because you have stayed it on Jesus.

I have come to you on my knees preaching the Good News of Jesus and Him crucified that you would put your faith in the power of God (1 Corinthians 2:1-5) to gain the courage you need to make the change of mind needed. I have been where you are and I did exactly this to escape myself. If I wrote down all the things Jesus has done for me since I began this process I suppose the world could not contain the books and it won’t be able to contain your books either.